"Are we decorating or making visual statements? What is the
process/skill development here? What's the curriculum? Who's in charge?
Is anybody out there?"

Artists don't create in a vacuum! They don't learn how to use a Chinese
"round" watercolor brush without perhaps examining how a traditional
Chinese artist might have used it. Just because people write about
studying and/or creating cultural artifacts doesn't mean skills and
techniques aren't taught too. We are not just "decorating" - we are
exposing children to the cultural diversity of their planet, cultivating
appreciation for the arts as well as developing visual perception,
hand/eye coordination, color theory, vocabulary, etc. We are guiding
students into and through the process of making visual statements. We
help them see their world with "artist's" eyes. Don't you think "real"
artists look at their environment? Other artwork of the past and
present? Respond to wars and famines and holidays and religion?
Critically analyze their own work?